This is the world that the religious right wanted (but in their favor) in the 80's, that we all stood up to and rejected. How did we end up back here again?
The first inkling I had that something was off, was a magazine article talking about rising religiosity in middle eastern countries.
That’s the first time the movie, where humanity pushed back religion and superstition, had tracking issues.
we saw that increasing wealth meant even bigger displays of religious dedication.
It turns out that a large part of the world has not had reason to go through their version of the enlightenment.
But while they were gaining the ability to improve GDP, the west was busy applying science to marketing, and business acumen to news reporting.
Effectively - we (humanity) used the tools of the enlightenment (science) to improve marketing, and apply it to religion. We targeted weaknesses in human thinking, and ruthlessly built bubbles of voters who didn’t need to fully understand the world to succeed.
My conclusion is that we were naive.
The evangelicals are alive and well.
Sooo, maybe? But I dont know if that point is well made.
I know it isn't in fashion to credit Christianity with anything, but what other philosophy of the era could have eventually ended slavery, given slavery is likely the state of man ever since Grog the caveman threatened his brother-son with a beating if he didn't fetch more water.
Hinduism, Christianity - all of them have the same pattern of behavior.
The religion part was just a handy excuse.
The fight for free speech is a neverending one because one side will always be in power. It's why the founders made it an inalienable right, not given to us by the government, but by "the creator".
Free speech isn't a privilege provided to us by the government. It is something we are born with.